Hello,

All good things eventually come to an end. This fact is perhaps felt more keenly in the stock market than anywhere else, and shareholders in Berkshire Hathaway recently got their own taste when Warren Buffett, aged 94, announced that he would be retiring as the firm’s CEO. Buffett took over the company in 1965 when it was just a textile manufacturer and has since transformed it into one of the largest conglomerates in the world.

 

A diligent follower of Benjamin Graham’s school of value investing, Buffett’s talent for identifying value has become the stuff of legend, earning him the title: “The Oracle of Omaha”.  Considered the greatest value investor of all time, he’s delivered nearly double the annualized returns of the S&P 500 over the last 60 years.

 

It’s standard for outperforming investment managers to be flocked to by those who are eager for nuggets of investment wisdom. But beware of an old man in a profession where men usually die young. Buffett has been outperforming for an awful long time and has unsurprisingly been attributed with an awful lot of quotes. Here’s a popular (and timely) example:

 

“When investing, pessimism is your friend, euphoria the enemy”.

 

As always, if you wish to discuss anything in further detail, please do get in touch.